After years of development and funding issues, former "My Little Pony" fighting game “Them’s Fightin’ Herds” has announced a public release date of February 22, 2018. Details released in an email to backers showcase upcoming updates and specials for purchasing the game. Other details such as the publisher were unveiled in the Steam listing and trailer.
Owners of “Skullgirls”, “Blazblue Centralfiction” and “Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2” on Steam will receive officially licensed lobby costumes for the characters of “Them’s Fightin’ Herds”. According to the listing on Steam, players can unlock cosmetics for Ragna and Jin from "Blazblue", Peacock’s hat, bomb and Crerebella’s hat from "Skullgirls", and the outfits and hair of Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske from the "Guilty Gear" series. All costumes will work on all characters.
There is no word on how long the promotion will last. The costumes will only change the looks of the characters within the multiplayer lobby, not in battles or in the story modes. The email also did not clarify if owners of "Them's Fightin' Herds" who purchase any of those games after buying TFH will get the costumes.
The Skullgirls promotion has been expected by the TFH community. TFH is built on the same engine developed by the Skullgirls team. The promotion by Arc System Works is surprising, considering that Arc System Works does not appear to have any connection with the TFH game or Skullgirls. Arc System Works' most recent success was the release of "Dragon Ball FighterZ" earlier this year. The game has already shipped out over two million copies.
Another element of note is video game retail site Humble Bundle is the official publisher of the game. This is not Humble Bundle’s first foray into publishing, though according to their listings on Steam, Them's Fightin' Herds could be one of the largest games they attempt to publish as a first party. After the failure of big budget games like “Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite” and “Lawbreakers”, Humble Bundle is taking a significant risk publishing TFH in the wake of Dragon Ball FighterZ.
Another feature of the game are two free story modes. One story takes place in the over-world of the game and the other will be a episodic story mode focused on each character. Considering the uproar when Street Fighter V did not release with a story mode, it is an interesting way to push out the game while buying development time.
